Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hey wanna buy hi-fi speakers??

(I've encountered this scam a few times back in 1997. They'll usually ask you for directions - pretend they were suppose to deliver the hi-fi to an architect/CEO/banker who has just been transferred/gone overseas/etc... They will claim their boss wants them to offload the equipment - and they offer it to YOU - yes beautiful handsome YOU - for cheap. Why you'd be a fool to refuse this bargain of the century!!

If it sounds too good to be true - it is. Its a scam folk. The speakers are either not working or cheap ripoffs. Read more here:

Victims still fall for white van speaker scam

The scam has been around for at least 25 years but scores of Australians are still being duped every year by a band of traveling fraudsters selling dodgy hi-fi equipment out of the back of a white van.

A senior investigator with the NSW Office of Fair Trading says the body is usually powerlesss to follow up complaints from people affected by the scam because victims do not collect details from the sellers and, by the time they know they have been duped, the fraudsters have disappeared.

Consumer Affairs Victoria said it had recorded more than 80 complaints about the scam since March 2007 but this figure could significantly understate the problem because many people do not file complaints with fair trading bodies, putting the ordeal down to a learning experience.

On the scamshield.com website, where people can log in and report scams, thousands from all over Australia have written in to warn people about the "white van speaker scam". This year alone there have been 30 reports but the site lists complaints as far back as 2001.

In a typical scenario, the scammers pull up beside the target - often at traffic lights - and begin spruiking home audio equipment at bargain basement prices, which they say has "fallen off the back of a truck" or is available through some warehousing error.

The equipment is billed as being made by a premium brand and the targets are led to believe they have stumbled upon a once-in-a-lifetime bargain.

The scammers, who use high-pressure sales tactics, jargon and fake documentation, then instruct the buyers to meet them a short distance away where they exchange the poor quality goods for money.

But when the consumers take the equipment home they often find the goods are of the lowest quality and often do not work at all.

Michael Cooper, director of mediation services and compliance at the NSW Office of Fair Trading, said the scam was usually executed by people with English accents, who travel around the world duping consumers with poor quality goods sourced from China.

Cooper said most people who complained to Fair Trading did not collect any details from the scammers - such as registration numbers - so there was not much the organisation could do to help.

Whether or not an offence was committed depended on the representations made by the sellers.

"It may well be that this is just very poor quality equipment and people are silly for buying it," he said.

"A lot of cases - when people have been conned - they put it down to a learning experience."

Cooper, a former police officer, said he did not know of anyone being arrested over the scam and "police appear to take the opinion buyer beware".

Consumer Affairs Victoria said it also was not aware of any arrests. It advised consumers approached by the scammers to take down as much information as they could about the traders' physical appearance and vehicle and pass it on to the organisation.

NSW Police said its fraud squad was aware of the scam but directed all queries to the NSW Office of Fair Trading.

"No legitimate businessman does business out of the back of their van like this," Cooper said.

"There are discount stores that you can specifically go to to get a bargain. Why people insist on buying things from the back of a van is beyond me."

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